East Stroudsburg school district starts to fill $6.2 million budget gap

East Stroudsburg Area School District officials are examining a variety of cost-saving measures to reduce a projected $6.2 million deficit in their 2013-14 budget.

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By CHRISTINA TATU

poconorecord.com

By CHRISTINA TATU

Posted Apr. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By CHRISTINA TATU

Posted Apr. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

East Stroudsburg Area School District officials are examining a variety of cost-saving measures to reduce a projected $6.2 million deficit in their 2013-14 budget.

"The philosophy is to try to look at things that have the least negative impact on student instruction," said School Business Manager Jeff Bader.

A budget advisory committee, comprised of school board members Michael Meachem, Ronald Bradley, Robert Gress and Marjorie James, is exploring ways the district can save money. The committee, which met Wednesday, makes recommendations to the full school board.

It appears district officials will be able to reduce the amount they budgeted for health care costs.

"Our claims are running better than our trend," Bader said.

He initially anticipated setting aside about $1.5 million for health care costs, but said he will now reduce that figure by $730,000.

The committee discussed the idea of levying an activity fee on all students, regardless of whether or not they participate in an after-school sport or activity. Committee members will not likely recommend the fee to the board, however, Bader said.

Last year, the school board voted not to implement a "pay-to-play" fee for 7-12 grade students participating in any after-wschool activities.

The activity fee they briefly discussed Wednesday would be similar to the activity fees colleges implement for all incoming students, Bader said. Because the fee is something the committee is unlikely to recommend, they did not discuss how much the fee might cost.

The committee also looked at stipends it provides to extracurricular program advisers.

"We are not doing away with stipends, but we may look at a different way to allocate those dollars," Bader said.

Under the proposal, each school building would receive a specific amount of money to go toward supporting advisers for after-school programs, he said.

"We are creating a formula so that every school has an equal opportunity pot of money to support their advisers in doing extracurricular activities, but it wouldn't be an infinite amount," Bader said. "The allocation would be based on the number of students, so a building with more students would receive more money."

At this point, the advisory committee has not discussed any plans to eliminate programs, although there was some discussion on "staffing issues," Bader said. Because it was a personnel issue, he declined to comment.

"At this point, we are trying to get guidance in terms of what areas the board wants the administration to explore more deeply," Bader said.

The school district must adopt a proposed final budget by the end of May and adopt its final budget by the end of June.